


An Intervention Takes Planning

by haras_onom



Series: Sins of The Father [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Bruce Wayne is a Bad Parent, Canon Divergence - Red Hood and the Outlaws #25, Gen, Good Parent Alfred Pennyworth, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Jason Todd Deserves Better, Post-Red Hood and the Outlaws #25, Protective Dick Grayson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:35:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22827277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haras_onom/pseuds/haras_onom
Summary: After Jason tells Dick about Bruce beating him, they decide to tell the rest of the family.
Relationships: Alfred Pennyworth & Jason Todd, Barbara Gordon & Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon & Jason Todd, Cassandra Cain & Jason Todd, Dick Grayson & Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Damian Wayne
Series: Sins of The Father [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1609114
Comments: 31
Kudos: 505





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The requested sequel! Except that there isn't actually any Bruce confronting just yet... I felt like this part made more sense to come next. Thank you so much for the love on the first work in this series <3

"So, what’s the game plan?” Dick asked.

He and Jason were sprawled out in the latter’s living room, Dick sitting on the floor with his back against the couch and Jason laying on said piece of furniture. A couple of hours had passed since they first started watching the cooking channel.

“Why do I have to do everything?” Jason replied and then sighed. “I think Antonio is going to get chopped.”

“Oh, for sure,” Dick said. “Anyway, I just want to hear what you’re comfortable with.”

“Ground rule: don’t baby me.”

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

Dick turned around and pouted at Jason. “To be fair, you are my baby brother.”

Jason rolled his eyes exasperatedly but didn’t dignify the remark with a response.

Dick had hoped that after their talk the previous night that Jason would continue to open up and allow himself to be vulnerable, but the younger man opted to return to his position behind many emotional walls. Dick couldn’t blame him though. Jason had been taught time after time that it was dangerous to be vulnerable.

After a moment of silence where Jason seemed to have shifted his attention back to the TV, he rejoined the conversation that he knew Dick wasn’t going to drop anytime soon. “I don’t want to be there,” Jason said. “When you confront Bruce. I don’t want to be anywhere near him.”

“Do you want to be there to talk to the others? You can stay at my place in Blud.” Dick offered.

Jason thought about it. “Sure. But don’t tell him I’m there.”

“Done,” Dick said. “I think we should tell everyone everything first, so Bruce can’t try to cover for himself afterward.”

“Yeah, that’s smart. Though you shouldn’t go at him alone.”

“Probably not,” Dick was quiet. “I can’t believe we’re having to do this.”

“I know.”

“Bruce is such an asshole,” Dick snapped. “I hate that he’s the one with all the power — the manor, the Batcave, the mantle, the resources. The only thing that I can do is isolate him.”

“You can always take back Batman,” Jason said with a weak smirk. “Your Dark Knight is definitely a crowd-pleaser.”

Dick guffawed. “Bruce will die before he gives up Batman.”

“Or have his back broken.”

“That too. But still, that’s only a temporary leave of absence.”

“Sounds like a viable plan B to me.”

“Jay,” Dick said in a warning tone.

“Hey, accidents happen. One moment you have a fully functioning back and the next… I don’t know, man.”

Dick snickered. “You’re a brat.”

“Actually, I think a certain thirteen-year-old holds that title in the family.”

“We can be a two-brat household.”

"I suppose,” Jason said. “Do you want to hit the road in an hour?”

“And leave your delightful apartment so soon?”

“Don’t worry, there’s a seventy percent chance it’ll still be here when we’re done.”

“I’ll take those odds,” Dick said. “Does that mean I’m invited back?”

“Don’t push your luck.”

The boys fell into a comfortable silence after that, enjoying each other’s company before the hell-storm they knew was coming.

Once the brothers were situated in Dick’s quaint Bludhaven apartment, it didn’t take long for the rest of the family to show up. Dick had sent out a mass text to them all, and everyone knew well enough that when someone sends out an SOS, you respond as soon as possible. So, Jason Todd found himself to be surrounded by his various members of his pseudo-family at an alarming rate. Tim, Damian, Duke, and the Batgirls had all heeded Dick’s call. Even Alfred had somehow managed to come; Bruce must’ve been at Wayne Enterprises. Jason knew that the discussion they were about to have was important and necessary, but he couldn’t help but sincerely wish that he was literally anywhere else at the moment.

“This spinach dip is quite good, Masters Jason and Dick,” Alfred said, interrupting the uneasy silence that had fallen over the room in anticipation.

“Oh, that was mostly Jason,” Dick said, “He stress-cooks.”

Jason had, in fact, made the spinach dip in anxious preparation for the family event that was as far from a party as anything could be. Sue him.

“You taught me well, Alf,” Jason said.

“What’s Todd so stressed about?” Damian asked sourly. “I thought he’d be enjoying his vacation from crime-fighting after his televised spectacle.”

“ _Vacation_?” Jason repeated, incredulous.

“Damian,” Dick said sternly, silencing the young teen with just a word. “We’re actually here to talk about something serious.”

“About Bruce?” Tim asked. When he was met with silence, he added, “He’s conveniently the only one not here.”

“Yeah, it’s about Bruce,” Dick confirmed. Jason had told him that he wanted Dick to do most of the talking, so the eldest continued, “Bruce has crossed a line, and I plan to give him hell about it, and I want you all to hear it from us first.”

At this point, the tense atmosphere of the room was palpable. Jason was filled with dread, knowing what came next.

“Bruce… used excessive force on Jason. Back after the Penguin thing. And then he kicked him out of Gotham, isolating him from the rest of us.”

There was a beat of silence.

“Oh dear,” Alfred said, his voice filled with sorrow at the thought of anyone hurting Jason, and that ‘anyone’ being Bruce. “Master Jason I —”

“You’re a liar!” Damian snarled at Jason. “How dare you slander my father.”

Jason scoffed and opened his mouth to argue, but Dick beat him to it.

“It’s true, Damian,” he said calmly.

“Father would never!”

“Well, he did,” Jason said, anger leaking through his words.

“Then, then you deserved it!” Damian shouted.

So quickly that Jason barely had time to process it, Dick strode over to Damian, swung him over in a fireman’s carry, and carried him away into Dick’s bathroom. He could hear lowered voices from the room afterward, but nothing distinguishable. Jason supposed that that’s what Dick’s brand of time-out looks like.

“Bruce and Damian are assholes,” Stephanie spoke up. “You didn’t deserve to be treated like that. Period.”

“Master Damian has a hard time reconciling contradictory information with the beliefs that he’s built up in his mind, but he’ll come around,” Alfred said, then walked over to place both hands on Jason’s shoulders. “Know that I cherish and support you, and I’m so sorry that this happened under my watch.”

“It isn’t your fault,” Jason mumbled, not able to meet Alfred’s eyes.

“I raised Bruce. I am responsible for his actions.”

"Still —"

In a move fairly uncharacteristic for the polite butler, Alfred embraced Jason in a tight hug. The next thing he knew, the young man was being held from all sides, everyone rushing over for a group hug. Jason hardly even gave half of these people a fist bump on a good day; this was all very overwhelming, to say the least. Not to mention that he was having a hard time believing that they'd side against Bruce. That they'd side with him.

“Hugging without me?” Dick asked, scandalized, after coming out of the bathroom without Damian in tow. He swiftly joined the hug. Once Jason felt sufficiently smushed, everyone backed off.

“Damn, do I make a grand entrance, or what?” Jason asked, attempting a joke but doing so with a partially shaky voice. The others fondly smiled or shook their heads.

“It’s good to have you back,” Tim said.

“It’s good to be back,” Jason said, and was surprised to find that in that moment, it was true.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Sorry if Damian feels OOC, I just feel like this would be the reaction of a kid who's grown to idolize his father. (Edit: thanks for the support on my Damian portrayal!)  
> 2) I always feel weird writing stuff that has a large group in it but only having some of the people present talk. Such is the life of a Bat-Family writer, I guess. Though the characters who haven't spoken yet will in the second chapter! Pinky promise.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three more conversations, of varying success.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Behold, the long-awaited update! Thank you all so much for being patient and supportive. I hope you enjoy this burst of creativity at 2am. A note about continuity: I'm just mashing canon together in my head, so try not to think about it too much (for my sake). Also, I don't know Cass super well, so if you have thoughts about how I wrote her, feel free to comment them.

After the initial announcement, the meeting turned into more of a hang-out. Everyone was milling about, eating spinach dip and catching up, save for whoever happened to be talking to Jason and/or Dick at any given time. Then, the conversation was serious and laser-focused.

“I think Bruce knows, on some level, that what he did was wrong,” Barbara said at one point. Jason was sitting in the window to the fire escape with Barbara wheeled nearby and Dick standing by her side. “He deleted the cowl footage. But honestly, that makes it worse. That he knew it was wrong and stuck by his guns anyway.”

“Stuck by his batarangs, you mean,” Jason said. “Guns are my thing.”

Jason sincerely wished that he was a better conversationalist while deflecting his emotions. He figured he should be good at it by now, with all the experience he has, but alas.

“Fear of being caught isn’t the same as feeling guilty,” Dick said.

“Fair point,” Barbara said. “I can’t believe we’ve been working with him for months, clueless,” she looked Jason straight in the eye, “We should’ve looked into your disappearance more.  _ I _ should have. I’m sorry.”

“Oh, don’t worry Barbs,” Jason said sheepishly, “I have built up a reputation for disappearing for months on end.”

“Still,” Dick said. “I’m sorry, too.”

Truthfully, now that Jason knew that Bruce hadn’t forbidden or even discouraged the others from contacting him, he was upset that they hadn’t tracked him down. It made him feel petty and childish to feel that way in the midst of everything else. Logically, he knew that they probably figured his exile was self-imposed and that he didn’t want to be tracked down. But it still hurt that the only people who’d reached out were Alfred (once, soon after. Jason had ignored it. If he had called again, Jason might’ve answered) and Dick. It did beget a question that had been forming in Jason’s head ever since he got to Bludhaven.

“Are you guys… mad? About the Penguin?” Jason asked. He took a quick swig of his drink to feign nonchalance.

Dick and Barbara exchanged glances.

“I think, at most, people were maybe disappointed,” Barbara said. “But not mad.”

“I mean, Tim forgave you for trying to kill him, so it wasn’t a big stretch to get over shooting Penguin,” Dick said.

“What about you, Golden Boy?” Jason narrowed his eyes. “You mad?”

Dick chuckled sardonically. “It’d be a little hypocritical if I were.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“That I have blood on my hands.”

“Okay sure,” Jason rolled his eyes. “We’ve all had people die on our watch, but that’s not at all comparable to putting a gun to someone’s head and pulling the trigger.”

“I’m not talking about failing to save someone. And I’m  _ definitely _ not trying to one-up you.”

“Then what are you talking about?” Jason asked, a hint of demand leaking into his voice. The conversation had taken a turn, and he was suddenly much more invested.

“Drop it, Jason,” Barbara said.

That was all the confirmation Jason needed. He took a step closer to Dick.

“You killed someone,” he said quietly, so only he and Dick could hear. “You killed someone and Daddy covered it up and gave you a pat on the back and sent you on your way.”

Dick was silent for a long moment, staring at the wall next to Jason’s head.

“Yeah,” he finally said.

“You’re fucking kidding me,” Jason hissed. “You didn’t even get a slap on the wrist?”

“It’s complicated,” Dick said, then met Jason’s eyes. “I shouldn’t have said anything, I’m really sorry, Jay.”

“Who? Who was it?”

“Joker.”

“Well, it doesn’t look like you did a very good job, Dickie,” Jason said aggressively.

“Bruce brought him back.”

“Pardon?”

“I killed him, Bruce brought him back so it ‘wouldn’t be on my conscience’ or whatever.”

“Let me get this straight,” Jason gritted his teeth, “My murderer was dead, and Bruce saved him for you?”

“It’s not like I asked him to,” Dick insisted. “And obviously it didn’t help my conscience at all.”

“It was more that he couldn’t stand one of his proteges breaking his code,” Barbara interjected.

“That makes me feel a lot better, then.”

“Jay —”

“I’m gonna go sit,” Jason said brusquely, pushing past towards Dick’s bedroom and closing the door behind him. 

Dick sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “We’re so fucking dysfunctional.”

“You don’t need to put everything on yourself,” Barbara said.

“I’m the oldest. Robin is my legacy, everyone is my responsibility,” he said firmly.

“I wish you’d believe me when I tell you that that isn’t true.”

“Yeah, I wish that too, Babs.” Dick reached for her hand and interlaced their fingers. “Will you talk to Bruce with me?”

“Of course,” she answered, giving his hand a small squeeze. “You’re doing a good job,” she told him. 

“I wish I believed that too.”

“You’re fucking kidding me,” Jason said for the second time in ten minutes. He had stormed into Dick’s room only to find the last person he wanted to see at the moment, Damian “Demon Brat” Wayne. 

“Hello, Todd,” Damian replied stiffly. He was sitting on Dick’s bed criss-cross-applesauce style, TV off and phone nowhere to be seen. So, just sitting in silence for who knows how long before Jason came in.  _ Weirdo _ , Jason thought bitterly.

“I’d like to brood alone, so if you could leave, it’d be much appreciated,” Jason said. “Unless you want to call me a liar again and say I deserve to be beaten half to death.”

“That won’t be necessary.”

“Which part?” Jason raised his eyebrow.

“The latter,” Damian said. “I’d like to apologize.”

“Oh,” Jason said, surprised. “Alright.”

There was a beat of silence.

“That was the apology.”

“Hm, needs some work, kid,” Jason said.

Damian forced a toothy smile, which was far more horrifying than any snarl he could conjure. “Jason. I am very sorry that I said those things to you, it was unfair of me to belittle you about what happened.”

“Be careful not to burst a brain vessel,” Jason said. “But thanks, I guess.”

“I’ll leave you to your brooding,” Damian said, getting up.

“Hey, real quick,” Jason stopped him, feeling like he’d probably regret it, but doing it anyway. “I know being raised in the League has made you not very attuned to how parents are supposed to act, but Bruce hasn’t ever… you know, right? Hit you?”

“We’re vigilantes.”

Jason rolled his eyes. “But you know there’s a line?”

“Yes,” Damian said hardly, then softened. “The answer to your original question is no. But thank you.”

“Yep,” Jason mumbled. “Okay, leave before it gets any weirder.”

Damian promptly left. 

Jason flung himself onto Dick’s bed and began his brooding process. It was hard to go from having never spoken about a difficult topic to suddenly telling everyone about it. And on top of that, learning that Dick hadn’t been punished at all for doing exactly what Jason did. Dick had been so helpful to Jason — in the past day, especially — but the younger man couldn’t help the green feeling that washed over him. He was angry. Angry at Dick for being hailed as perfect, as the standard to uphold. Angry that Dick got the slack that Jason didn’t. What was so terrible about Jason? What was so inherently wrong? Sure, he killed people. Bruce didn’t seem to mind all that much when Jason was fresh out of the pit. But then, Jason supposes, he was hyped up on the return of his dead son. Now that the new car smell had faded, Bruce wasn’t so forgiving of transgressions. And Jason hadn’t even started to dissect the fact that Dick apparently killed the Joker.

There was a light but decisive knock on the door.

“Not now, Dick,” Jason called.

“Not Dick,” was the answer. Jason recognized Cass’s voice.

He sighed. “Come in.”

She entered silently and closed the door in the same manner. Jason twisted around and sat up to face her, his sister taking a seat beside him. She reached out and squeezed his hand.

“Thanks,” he breathed.

“Talk?” she asked. 

Jason loved Cass’s bluntness, how she spoke with no fluff whatsoever. She communicated with the minimum necessary words, and he found it both highly efficient and oddly comforting. 

“Dick said something that shocked me,” Jason explained. “So I needed a minute.”

They sat quietly for a moment.

“I should have known about Bruce,” Cass said with finality.

“You can’t read minds.”

“I read bodies,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

“Bruce is good at manipulating his body language,” Jason said. “It’s okay that you couldn’t read it off of him. I’m not even sure how you could’ve.”

“He’s a threat, so I should have known.”

“He’s your parental figure. Our parental figure. That tends to skew perception. I don’t hold you accountable for not knowing before or after.”

Cass nodded. “I’m angry,” she huffed.

“I am too,” he said. “This is why we’re the badass siblings.”

“Yes,” she said. “I’m going with Dick and Barbara to talk to Bruce.”

“Oh? I know you can whip his ass, but be careful.”

“I will be.”

“Do you mind if we just sit?”

She didn’t.

Part of Jason wanted to go with them and give Bruce a piece of his mind. But a larger part of him that reeked of self-preservation was glad that he'd be safely tucked away in Bludhaven. He wasn't scared of Bruce, per se. He just knew from life experiences to give a wide berth to people who didn't think twice about decking you. He'd talk to Bruce eventually. But for now, he'd like to avoid the fallout for as long as possible.

_ Good luck, Golden _ _Boy._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up next: a separate story in the series about confronting Bruce, so subscribe if you don't want to miss it! Again, thank you so much.


End file.
